• Inspiring motorsport between the Atlantic Ocean and Lac Rosé
• Extreme Challenge for Teams and Equipment
• Racing Series on Continental’s Special CrossContact Extreme E Tires

​The spectacular new off-road racing series Extreme E made a guest appearance on its second race weekend in Senegal. On the banks of Lac Rosé, the pack was completely reshuffled. Not far from Dakar, not only completely different climatic conditions awaited the teams, but also completely different driving challenges than at the opening race in the desert of Saudi Arabia – the chance for all teams that had not made it to the finals in Al-Ula to turn the tide. And at first, everything looked as if this could succeed. In the end, only unfortunate circumstances prevented the complete reorganization of the ranking.

© Extreme E

The first bad luck of the Ocean XPrix was Kyle LeDuc from Team Chip Ganassi, who had to cope with two serious accidents at the season opener in Saudi Arabia. The American drove an impressive second qualifying session with a chance of setting the best time when his ODYSSEY 21 suddenly stopped on the track for no apparent reason. The branch of a mangrove had become entangled in the emergency power off switch on the roof of the racing car and put the e-SUV out of action. Kyle LeDuc managed to start the car again. In the end, however, he and his teammate Sara Price missed the semi-finals due to the unfortunate incident. As winners in the Shootout race, they later collected important points for the rankings.

The TEAM ABT Cupra XE was also very strong, with Jutta Kleinschmidt at the wheel alongside Mattias Ekström this time, because regular pilot Claudia Hürtgen was absent due to illness. Team ABT Cupra XE also suffered two serious accidents at the start in Saudi Arabia and was therefore only able to collect a few points. In Senegal, Mattias Ekström and Jutta Kleinschmidt delivered spectacular motorsport, finished qualifying in third place and were even in the lead in the first semi-final until the driver change. Then problems with the radio cost them valuable seconds. The Dakar winner of 2001 then set the fastest lap time of the opponents, but had to admit defeat at the finish by only nine tenths of a second.

Things went even better for team JBXE with Continental test pilot Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky, at whose side Kevin Hansen started for Jenson Button this time. The sixth-placed teams from Saudi Arabia made it to the final, where a rebound by Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky with Team X44’s Cristina Gutiérrez meant the end for both ODYSSEY 21. Because the Swede kept the car in the race even longer afterwards, it was enough for third place in the competition and a jump in the overall classification.

The biggest performance increase was recorded by Stéphane Sarrazin and Jamie Chadwick of Team Veloce Racing, who had collected the fewest points of all the teams in Saudi Arabia. In the dunes of Senegal on the West African Atlantic, they finished the final in second place behind Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor of Rosberg X Racing.